AGGRESSOR IN GHOST PAINT: An F-16 from the 64th Aggressors Squadron takes off from Nellis AFB, Nevada wearing the unit’s new “ghost” paint scheme. According to the caption, the new paint scheme was based on an idea “generated from the 57th Wing commander’s social media account…”

Posted at 8:22 am by Austin Bay

WHAT PASSES FOR “WHITE SUPREMACY” IN THE 21st CENTURY: “So ‘white supremacy’ consists of such sinister elements as perfectionism, sense of urgency, ‘worship of the written word’– I suppose that means using correct grammar and spelling, ‘either/or thinking,’ individualism and objectivity. I think I am starting to get the picture. One thing that puzzles me, however, is the inclusion of ‘right to comfort.’ Isn’t it leftists who think they have a right to ‘safe spaces’ where they can’t be offended?”

Though the tweet from Iowahawk on the media that we often use to accompany it is a little too spot-on in this case:

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OPENS: On this day in 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia. It had been scheduled to start on May 14th, but on the appointed day, there was no quorum. Nor was there a quorum on May 15th, 16th, 17th or for many days thereafter. Some began to wonder whether the convention would be a failure (as a similar meeting in Annapolis, Maryland had been the year before).

But they were worrying unnecessarily. Their colleagues were on their way, delayed in transit. Soon delegations from every state except Rhode Island had arrived. In the meantime the early arrivers (like James Madison, who was so eager that he had arrived on May 4) could cool their heels at the Indian Queen Tavern.

The Historian Norman Cohn, in his 1957 book, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages, found that Millenarian movements always picture salvation as:

Collective, in the sense that it is to be enjoyed by the faithful as a collectivity.

Terrestrial, in the sense that it is to be realized on this earth and not in some other-worldly heaven.

Imminent, in the sense that it is to come both soon and suddenly.

Total, in the sense that it is utterly to transform life on earth, so that the new dispensation will be no mere improvement on the present but perfection itself.

Miraculous, in the sense that it is to be accomplished by, or with the help of, supernatural agencies.

It might have been expected that millenarian thinking would disappear with the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason. But Cohn found that these ideas and the manias they inspired reemerged in the twentieth century’s secular totalitarian and revolutionary movements.

In what could be a description of the Green New Deal, Cohn argued that these movements felt themselves to be engaged in a struggle of unique importance, “different in kind from all other struggles known to history, a cataclysm from which the world is to emerge totally transformed and redeemed…this is the essence of the recurrent phenomenon of revolutionary millenarianism.”

Author of the article, Melissa Locker goes on to say, “It’s an infuriating addition to the challenges that women already face in the workplace, adding to their emotional labor by making sure their male bosses feel comfortable interacting with them alone and at those all-important work socialization events.”

Infuriating, maybe, but not unexpected.

As Glenn has written, “you could write a strong argument for patriarchy using only the things feminists say about the fragility of women.” Read the whole thing.

Facing poverty after a childhood among the wealthy and powerful, Lyddie Hartington decamps to Ceres, a newly colonized planet on the edges of the galaxy. Armed only with a change of clothes, a letter of introduction to the directors of the Andromeda Company, and a blaster, she is determined to make her fortune.

But Ceres is nothing like Orion-14, and before she knows it, Lyddie is witness to a murder- a murder that goes to the heart of the Andromeda Company and puts her life in danger. With the help of her new friend, an entirely too handsome captain of the Galaxy Watch, she must discover the murderer and solve the mystery of her family’s downfall.

CANCEL CULTURE COMES FOR KYLE KASHUV: Alt-Right, Woke Left Join Forces to Cancel Kyle Kashuv for Past Comments He Regrets. “What Kashuv said was indeed horrible, and well-worth criticizing. But his claim that he is no longer the same person who made those remarks is quite plausible. Teenagers’ ideas, personalities, and viewpoints are constantly in flux. Learning right from wrong is part of growing up, and our society is far too unforgiving of kids who made mistakes that they regret. Alas, technology now makes it possible to keep a record of every bad thing an imperfect teenager says. People on both the left and the right should probably be a little less eager to put kids on pedestals and anoint them as leaders of political movements.”

This history is compelling. But what’s most distressing is where this is all heading—and why. Segregation is likely to increase on colleges campuses (these are my thoughts, not those of the study’s authors) because it’s the only possible end product of today’s activist left. Specifically, the proliferation of safe spaces and the dominance of identity politics (core aspects of the campus-leftist agenda) must end in segregation. Safe spaces are created by separating out unwanted elements. Identity politics, by definition, emphasizes group differences over similarities. Inevitably, when you have the two enjoined in an unholy alliance on campuses across the country, you’re going to get the separation of people according to their group differences.

HOW DARE YOU MOVE THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE OUT TO HICKSVILLE! USDA staffers quit en masse as Trump administration eyes moving offices out of DC. “Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) – two small but important agencies within the USDA – are unhappy with Perdue’s plan, announced last August, to move the majority of their staff from current offices in the capital to an area closer the country’s agricultural centers.”

Weight Watchers has officially removed the statue of “Weird” Al Yankovic from its corporate headquarters in Manhattan and will no longer play Yankovic’s “Now That’s What I Call Polka!” in their television commercials, the organization announced in a statement on Monday.

This follows last week’s decision by Jenny Craig to suspend the use of Yankovic’s rendition of “Dare To Be Stupid” in their latest exercise video release “Let’s Lose It 2019!” while they investigate an allegation of sizeism against the singer.

The statue of Yankovic in front of the Weight Watchers Madison Avenue office was first covered and then removed.

Channel 8’s RJ Fletcher reported Thursday there are conflicting claims about Yankovic’s 1988 song “I’m Fat.” Some say the song was a parody of a pop song and was considered satire, but has also been said that Yankovic, a vegan, hates obese people.

It’s a funny song, the video was quite clever, and so who cares why he wrote it?

Recently, Facebook deleted without warning or explanation the Banting7DayMealPlan user group. The group has 1.65 million users who post testimonials and other information regarding the efficacy of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. While the site has subsequently been reinstated (also without warning or explanation), Facebook’s action should give any serious person reason to pause, especially those of us engaged in activities contrary to prevailing opinion.

Facebook and its properties host and oversee a significant share of the marketplace of public thought. To millions of individuals and communities across the world, Facebook and its properties remain the platforms where ideas and information are exchanged. Facebook thus serves as a de facto authority over the public square, arbitrating a worldwide exchange of information as well as overseeing the security of the individuals and communities who entrust their ideas, work, and private data to this platform. This mandates a certain responsibility and assurance of good faith, transparency, and due process.

CrossFit, Inc., as a voluntary user of and contributor to this marketplace, can and must remove itself from this particular manifestation of the public square when it becomes clear that such responsibilities are betrayed or reneged upon to the detriment of our community. Common decency demands that we do so.

John Nolte of Breitbart points out that the unmasking of the Russia Hoax is only the latest example of fake news purveyed by both progressive cable networks (as well as most of the MSM). He lists the fake news frauds of recent memory:

To that list must be added the incredible on-air promotion of Michael Avenatti, just indicted for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his client Stormy Daniels, adding to his existing indictments in New York and Los Angeles for attempting to shake down Nike.

She hadn’t. Will Boris Johnson replace her? “It has to be Boris. Some thought Boris’s foreign secretary resignation statement bloodless, but it was wise and measured. It was not, he said, that the government had failed to make the case for a free trade agreement as laid out at Lancaster House, but that ‘We have not even tried’. The electorate understands this point, Tory voters even more so. Voters might have forgiven May had she tried to secure a proper Brexit, but she never intended to. Failure is one thing, betrayal is another.”

CLAUDIA ROSETT: Huawei’s An Asset All Right — But It’s Not Our Asset. “Whatever the details of Huawei’s officially private ownership, or the marvels of its innovations and industry, Huawei is for strategic purposes an asset of the globally ambitious despotism that is the government of China. Which makes it dangerous.”

I’ve been calling Huawei a “communist front corporation” for a while now, which seems more apt than ever — and do read the whole thing.

BECAUSE WHEN DEMOCRATS DO IT, IT’S JUST A SPECIAL KIND OF PATRIOTISM: How is this not colluding with America’s enemies? “Imagine, for a moment, what the political reaction would be if a leading Republican senator met with an antagonistic foreign power, say Russia, in the midst of high-tension standoff between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin? Such a scenario seems nearly ­inconceivable. Yet, it’s exactly the situation Sen. Dianne Feinstein created when hosting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for dinner a few weeks ago.”

The Bay Area wants to enjoy wealth concentration like Manhattan, but also the population spread of the suburbs. Something’s gotta give.

Posted at 10:40 am by Stephen Green

SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: Conlawprof and the Recent EU Elections. “Professor AAA wrote: ‘The European elections are exposing the fact that the British party system is well and truly collapsing.’ True: but why is this a bad result? A majority of the voters voted for Leave in the referendum. A majority of MPs (from both major parties) are for Remain. In those circumstances, it is hardly surprising that there would be something like a significant realignment. If there were no meaningful realignment, then democratic institutions would be a failure. It is almost as if some people despise democracy and want that precise failure as long as their preferred outcome should be preserved and their knowledge base of extant institutions should remain prized.”

Flashback: Donald Trump is a symptom of a new kind of class warfare raging at home and abroad. “But the New Class isn’t limited to communist countries, really. Around the world in the postwar era, power was taken up by unelected professional and managerial elites. To understand what’s going on with President Donald Trump and his opposition, and in other countries as diverse as France, Hungary, Italy and Brazil, it’s important to realize that the post-World War II institutional arrangements of the Western democracies are being renegotiated, and that those democracies’ professional and managerial elites don’t like that very much, because they have done very well under those arrangements. And, like all elites who are doing very well, they don’t want that to change.”

When Meredith acquired Time Inc. last year, it quickly spotted the problems: Time magazine, Fortune, Money and Sports Illustrated. The titles had the richest history and greatest prestige, but they depended on news content easily found elsewhere. Meredith didn’t see a way to change the downward trajectory, so it put them up for sale, with little nostalgia.

People magazine, on the other hand, was a situation. It was highly profitable, but reflected all the stresses on modern publishing, including substantial declines in print advertising and newsstand revenue, and insufficient online ad growth. Meredith saw a powerful brand that wasn’t fully capitalizing on its unparalleled access to celebrities. It had valuable exclusive material—from Hollywood stars to human-interest stories and true-crime tales—and there was room to bring in more money.

It’s a practical approach: Invest in assets with the promise of profit growth; don’t waste money trying to fix hopelessly weak ones, no matter how strong the romantic attachment.

“We’re pleased to have found such passionate buyers in Marc and Lynne Benioff for the Time brand,” Meredith president and CEO Tom Harty said in a statement. “For over 90 years, Time has been at the forefront of the most significant events and impactful stories that shape our global conversation.”

In a memo to the magazine’s staff, Time’s editor in chief, Edward Felsenthal, said he was “thrilled” with the news.

“From the first moments we sat down with Marc and Lynne to discuss Time’s future, we knew that this was not just a meeting of minds and business goals, it was a confluence of purpose,” Felsenthal said.

He added that the Benioffs had told him to “think big, really big,” and envision what Time will look like in 2040.

Will it still be a weekly print news magazine in supermarkets and dentists’ offices? Now an anachronism in the era of blogs, Twitter and 24-hour cable news, Time magazine hasn’t been Time magazine since its center-right founder Henry Luce died in the mid-1960s and the publication became an increasingly less essential cog in the endless DNC-MSM echo machine. Let the dinosaur finally die.

Roper told lawmakers this month that Valkyrie would transition to a prototype program known as Skyborg, where the drone will be outfitted with new sensors and payloads and will be networked to manned fighter jets. In March, he characterized Skyborg as an artificial intelligence wingman that would train and learn alongside pilots, or possibly be incorporated into a manned fighter cockpit to act as an assistant to the pilot like R2-D2 in the “Star Wars” films.

But until now, the Air Force had not identified the platforms are under consideration to be equipped with Skyborg or teamed with the XQ-58 Valkyrie.

The Valkyrie, which flew its first test flight at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, on March 5, was designed to perform and maneuver like a fighter jet. It can fly at high subsonic speeds, takeoff without a runway, and, according to Kratos, meet or exceed the Air Force’s requirement for a 1,500-nautical-mile range with a 500-pound payload.

When produced in volume, Roper predicted that they will cost “a couple million bucks” each — not cheap, but inexpensive compared to the F-35A and F-15EX, which are expected to cost about $80 million per jet over the same time frame.

“Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

“The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information.”

Recognizing the danger to Democratic interests posed by a thorough and transparent investigation of surveillance against the Trump campaign, Rep. Adam Schiff wasted no time complaining about the declassification memo. He accused the president and the attorney general of conspiring to “weaponize law enforcement and classified information against their political enemies.”

But all they are really doing is providing access to information. If the information shows no wrongdoing, there will be nothing to “weaponize.” If the information shows wrongdoing, consequences should follow.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 8:50 am by Austin Bay

BUFF RETURNS FROM THE BONEYARD A resurrected B-52H leaves the Boneyard 309th (located at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona) and returns to active duty at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.

Former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos said on Tuesday that Mark Zuckerberg should hire a new CEO and turn his focus to building products.

“There’s a legit argument that he has too much power,” said Stamos, who left the company in 2018, at the Collision Conference in Toronto. “He needs to give up some of that power. If I was him, I would go hire a new CEO for the company.”

Stamos even offered a specific suggestion: Microsoft President Brad Smith.

HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES GRADUATE PROPORTIONATELY MORE MINORITY STEM MAJORS THAN MAINSTREAM UNIVERSITIES: That’swhythe National Science Foundation and other STEM funders are generous with them. (And here, of course, is why they do so well in STEM.)

Let’s assume, hypothetically, that an independent journalist working in Washington somehow obtained a confidential FBI report on the death of a prominent Trump administration official that described its lurid circumstances, including the presence of a woman not his wife and the use of illegal drugs that caused, or at least contributed to, his demise.

Let’s also assume that the Justice Department responded to the disclosure by raiding the journalist’s home and confiscating computers and other tools of his trade, hoping to learn who leaked the report.

Democratic politicians and civil libertarians would erupt in outrage at a heavy-handed government act intended to discourage journalists from delving into areas that officialdom considered off-limits.

So where is that outrage about the San Francisco Police Department’s May 10 assault on journalist Bryan Carmody, who had obtained a police report about the death of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi under exactly those unbecoming circumstances?

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